Round Top

Sorry, I've been in a blah mood about blogging! Last week my mom came for a visit. She came up Wednesday evening. Alex woke up from her nap in a foul mood and didn't even want to know who was here to see her. She buried her head in my shoulder and refused to look up. I turned around so her head was facing my mom. The second she was her, she practically threw herself out of my arms and into my moms. It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen!

Thursday we had a plan. My sweet Josh worked half a day. We all got up and got ready and he was on Alex duty. He took her to school and picked her up while my mom and I went to Round Top. It was very overwhelming because there is sooo much stuff to see. We drove through town taking it all in and making mental notes of placed we wanted to stop. We picked a little outdoor area first. I bought a super cute necklace and adorable hand painted Halloween decor. Mom bought me another piece I absolutely LOVED! Alex loved the witch and named her Blink.

We hopped in the car and drove to another outdoor area where I found a retro looking silver covered cake carrier. I love it, it just needs a little clean up and shine!

We made 2 more stops to eat and shop some more. It was CRAZY hot and we were both getting pretty worn out so we called it a day after a few hours and headed home! It was soo much fun to spend the day shopping with my mom! Josh loved taking Alex to school and has even offered to pick her up from school once a week on his lunch break and bring her home to me. Here are a few pics from our day!

my super cute pumpkin, it is an old heater

Blink the witch, painted on a suitcase

I have no idea why I was soo hot...
maybe it had something to do with the old teddy bear
like coat I insisted on trying on!

crazy stuff...this dragon was about 8 feet tall. I sent Josh a pic and asked if I could get him...
he said no! haha

crazy sequined coronation dress for $3500? I'll pass!

Total Randomness

I have thousands of pictures on my phone. I never take the time to upload them, so here goes!

several weeks ago Alex was running down our driveway and tripped. Her poor knees were bloody! In true Alex dramatic fashion, we had to bandage them up!

I don't even know where we were, but I love this picture! They are soo cute!

Alex loves collies. Every time we go to Hobby Lobby, we have to stop to see the dog statues. The collie always gets a kiss. They are down to one collie statue and she is worried someone will buy it!
She LOVES putting on lip gloss. She walks around with pouty lips for at least 10 minutes after applying gloss!


This is what I get for telling my child to get dressed. She loves to pick out her own clothes, socks and shoes!
She is such a sweet mommy to her babies. Here she is consoling Ariel telling her the mean sea witch won't get her!
Naps are pretty much a thing of the past. She will nap one, maybe two days a week. The other days she has quiet time in her room. She usually pulls every stuffed animal out of her closet!
Slight obsession with bandaids. Sometimes it's just easier to give her the box and let her go to town!
She loves asking how to spell things. Here is our family members names. She would not take any letters from her name to make other names so we have Alex, osh (Josh), jmi (jamie), cpr (Cooper). She is excellent at finding each letter and putting them in order!
Meet Froggy, Alex's new favorite baby. I got to drive around with him buckled in the car seat while Alex was at school one day.
Ice cream following a mommy/daughter date night at Chickfila!
Alex and Froggy waiting for flu shots yesterday.
Sharing a pancake breakfast with her Cooper dog!
Dress up time for Ariel!

The Fall Lineup

I feel like since Alex started school we haven't had a free moment! Since she was going to be in school 3 days a week, I didn't want to over-schedule her so I only signed her up for dance. She goes straight from school to dance on Wednesdays. I figured if it became too much we would see about changing to Monday or dropping dance all together. So far it has been great! Of course as soon as school started she asked about gymnastics too. Our gym typically doesn't have Friday classes, but so many parents from our school asked about it, they added 2 classes. Unfortunately we waited too long and didn't get in the class with all her friends, but that may change in a few weeks. I heard through the parent grapevine one kid may drop out and we are first on the wait list for her spot!

Alex loves her dance studio and the teachers adore her! Last year she was the youngest in her class of 2 year olds, this year she is still the youngest in her class of 3-5 year olds, but you would never know watching her. She can keep up with the older girls. I love that she is in class with a friend from last year and one of her class mates just started too! It is soo cute watching the 3 sweet girls hold hands and giggle together.

In the 3 short weeks Alex has been in school she seems like she has grown up so much. She has sweet little friends she talks about, she sings songs I've never heard, she tells me stories about her days. She has also pretty much stopped napping. I am lucky if she naps 1, maybe 2 days a week. It's kind of nice because instead of napping as soon as she gets home from school, we get to spend time together!

Wild Oak Ranch 2011

As part of our parents Christmas present, we told them we were taking everyone on a family vacation...but they'd have to wait until summer! We took both set of grandparents with us to Wild Oak Ranch in San Antonio. We (Josh, Alex and I) went last year and loved it, but we thought it would be so much fun with the grandparents too! We had 2 connecting room, one with a full kitchen. I spent the week prior planning meals, grocery shopping and packing. Josh worked a half day Thursday and Nomi, Terri and Ray drove to our house. We left soon after Alex got out of school. Once we got to the resort, we had dinner and Josh and I went to the grocery store for the cold stuff. Alex was spoiled rotten with both sets of grandparents there. She even slept in bed with us the first night! Popi met us there on Friday.

It was a perfect vacation for multiple people. We had plenty of room between both rooms and having the kitchen was a life saver because we could cook pretty much every meal there. I LOVE that the kitchen was stocked with all necessary utensils. The only thing I took was an extra pan because I knew cooking so many meals in the room for 7 people would be a little difficult with the 3 pans the hotel provided.

We spent our mornings in the room taking our time with coffee and breakfast. We went to the lazy river for a few hours then went to the room in shifts for lunch so someone could hold our cabana and Alex could get in a nap in the room with someone with her. We had a prime cabana with 6 lounge chairs, shade and a lazy river entrance.

We spent our afternoons floating the river, reading books and napping by the water! It was PERFECT! Friday night was a movie under the stars. They showed Tangled, which is an Alex favorite! Grandma and Nomi liked it too! Saturday night we did dinner at the restaurant on the property then went to the fire pits for smores! I LOVE how kid and family friendly the entire resort is.

I met a really sweet mom who happened to be from Bryan! Crazy small world! Alex also made friends with two boys from Houston. She enlisted them to help her make princess sand castles. They were soo cute with her! We had so much fun and are talking about making this a yearly trip!

Alex getting in a little nap on the way to San Antonio

Nomi, Alex and Grandma post breakfast, playing in the room

Ray and Josh catching up over coffee

Terri and Ray floating the river

Daddy and his girl!

our little river entrance from our cabana!

Josh relaxing!

a little break from floating

our perfect cabana!

Nomi and Popi

me and my sweetie!

Letting Go

Alex had a blast at her first day of preschool. Josh and my mom were both worried about how I'd take her being there. I've been soo excited about her going because I know she was really looking forward to it. Every few days a little something would make me stop and fight back tears thinking of my baby being at school and not with me. I know it's silly, mainly because this is a program we chose to enroll her in and it's not mandatory. The day I got an email from her teacher reminding parents of the upcoming activities and a final head count I teared up. That made it seem so real. My little girls name was on a classroom list of students. Wasn't she just a tiny little baby in my arms yesterday? Monday as I was packing a change of clothes and washing her lunch box containers I cried. She was sleeping and it took all my strength not to go in and hold her.

Drop off went great, Alex went right in, started playing and hardly looked back. We each gave her a hug and a kiss and went on our way. At one point I looked at the clock and knew it was lunch time in her class. I teared up again, just thinking about my girl sitting at a little table with her 12 peers and 2 teachers, opening her lunchbox and eating with her new friends. I was wondering if she liked her little sandwich, ate all her fruit, waited until the end to eat her little Fig Newton cookie. I wondered if other kids had their juice and she was disappointed I only packed a bottle of water. I wondered if she used her little purple napkin she picked out at Hobby Lobby. It's crazy that I can be completely fine with her being at school, without me, but the thought of her having lunch with her friends like a big girl tugs at my heart.

When I went to pick her up she was playing outside with a group of friends from gymnastics. They are spread out in 3 classes, but all get to play together outside. She saw me and ran to give me a sweaty little hug and all was right in my world. She told me about everything she did. I asked her if she played with Helen, yes, Carson, yes, Rainey, yes. Then for good measure (and to make sure she wasn't just saying yes to everything I asked) I asked about Maria. She stopped, looked at me and said, Who is Maria? Can't pull one over on this girl! I already know she is going to thrive in school and it's just what we both need, but my house is soo quiet now without her sweet little voice.

The First Day

Today was the big day! We've been talking about pre school for weeks now and Alex was more than ready to go! She picked out her dress last week and has been talking about school so much!

I woke up early so I could get ready before she woke up. I made us breakfast, let Alex watch a show then she started getting ready. I didn't want her to feel rushed or stressed out on her first day so we took our time getting ready. I made sure she had some time to play a little before we left. Of course I had to take a few pictures of my pumpkin before we left the house!

We stopped at Josh's office on the way so he could go with me to drop her off. She went into her class and barely looked back. She put her backpack and lunch away, then put her water bottle in the basket they take when the go outside to play. She immediately started playing with the playdoh. I practically had to beg her to stop playing long enough to take a picture with her teachers! She gave us a hug and kiss then went on her merry way!

Ms. Mary, Alex and Ms. Kristie

Pre School Prep

We are getting my sweet girl ready for pre school! She starts 2 weeks from today. We have been talking about it since the Spring and I know she is more than ready. I LOVE her school. They do several activities prior to school starting so the children are familiar with their teacher and their classroom. Today we had our in home visit. Ms. Mary, her teacher, and Ms. Kristie, the assistant teacher, came by. They had a folder filled with helpful info that Alex was very excited about! Ms. Mary brought Alex "Clifford Goes To School". She read it to her and let her keep it. I love that the teacher and assistant meets each child in their own environment for the first time! Our next activity will be open house in the classroom next week.

Not long after I registered her for school, we dropped by a little boutique and they happened to have all the backpacks and lunch bags 50% off. Alex picked a cute striped pattern and we had them personalized. During our teacher visit today, she informed Ms. Mary she wanted to be called Alexandra. Good thing I chose Alexandra for her lunch bag and backpack months ago!

Alexandra and I took a little Mommy/Daughter shopping trip 2 weeks ago. We went shopping for school shoes since she has to wear close toe shoes. She picked some containers and ice packs for her lunch bag. It was so much fun to spend a day just hanging out with my girl. She thought the little stockings she had to wear to try on shoes were funny!

The perfect ending to our shopping date was a ride on the carousel!